During his interview with Bill Moyers, Robert Kuttner said
that "this time there is no social movement." It is true that one has emerged
in the tea parties, but that one isn't helping. With dejection setting in on
the progressive side, there is only one candidate abroad that might yield the
necessary foot soldiers for a progressive social movement, and that is labor.
This is certain to happen sooner or later because the plight of labor in the US
will only increase until the drive for collective action finally asserts itself.

Even if everything along the lines of a more activist labor
movement happens as one might wish, it would be a while before the tenor of
Washington reflected the change. Perhaps Labor could take a cue from the
privatization message on the other side, and begin to solve its own problems
well before then.

Here are some thoughts about how that might go: With the
failure of card check even in a Democratic Congress, there is still the
possibility of forming an over-arching labor organization that rises above
specific industries and occupations to pursue the common interest of all of
labor---unionized or not. Such an organization could attract members even from
companies not yet organized, and thus provide the framework for the informal appraisal
of organizing initiatives. The hope is that it would also attract people who
would never see themselves as union members, but who recognize a shared
interest in the welfare of the American worker.

Is there a sufficient common interest to draw all of labor
into such an organization? Increasingly, there is. We are all victimized by the
usury being perpetrated by the financial institutions, and even a Democratic
Congress was unable to place a lid on credit card interest rates. We are all
victimized by insurance company policies that promise more than they deliver.
We are all victimized by predatory capital. In each of these areas, the
individual is in a very asymmetric power relationship. A more powerful intermediary
could help to redress the balance.

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A national labor organization could contract with a bank or
credit card company for special terms for its members. With the advantage of
scale, the organization could even back-stop some of the credit risk, and thus
arrange for much more modest (and bounded) interest rates. A national labor
organization could have a significant impact on health insurance policies. By
offering wellness programs to its members, more favorable insurance rates could
be negotiated. More specifically, the organization could contract for a
combination of health insurance with life insurance, so that for the first time
the physical well-being of the client is aligned with the financial well-being
of the insurance company.

An over-arching national labor organization can expect to
have more impact on how pension funds invest their resources. The interests of
American labor should be on the table in those decisions. A labor organization
of national scale can also expect to have more clout internationally, working
against the predatory exploitation of foreign labor, of lax environmental laws,
and of the general lack of regulatory controls in developing countries. Globalization
of our economic activities means that labor also must have a trans-national
perspective.

A labor organization that rises above the more parochial
interests of its constituent members will have a better chance of being heard,
and it will get a more favorable hearing when that happens. In consequence, a
national organization will have a lot more clout in Washington than the organizations
that exist presently. The non-governmental initiatives undertaken by labor will
serve as guideposts for legislation to follow. Nothing says what we have become
in this country quite as well as the observation that the term "usury" has
become legally inoperative.

Siegfried Othmer is a physicist who over the last 28 years has been engaged with neurofeedback as a technique for the rehabilitation and enhancement of brain function. He is Chief Scientist at the EEG Institute in Los Angeles.